Drafthouse Films has acquired North American rights to Japanese director Hitoshi Matsumoto’s wild “R100.” The film world premiered earlier this month at the Toronto International Film Festival and recently had its U.S. premiere at Fantastic Fest. The company plans to release it theatrically and on VOD next year.

Here’s the synopsis per Drafthouse:

“R100” (a riff on the Japanese movie rating system, whose equivalent to NC-17 is R18) tells the story of lonely everyman, Takafumi Katayama,
who hires a boutique S&M agency that specialize in random acts of
extreme public degradation. At first, this changes his outlook on life
for the better, but a bizarre accident violates the terms of the
contract and hurdles Takafumi into a confounding spiral that will test his very soul.

“…despite its head-scratching moments, ‘R100’ also maintains an elevated
cult movie consistency that’s par for the course with Matsumoto, by
combining its playful irrationality with an emotional and philosophical
core,” wrote Indiewire’s Eric Kohn in his glowing review out of Toronto.

“There’s probably no bigger fan of Hitoshi Matsumoto’s comedy in North America than me,” said Drafthouse Films Founder Tim League in a statement. “Without Matsumoto, there’s no ‘Jackass;; there’s no extreme reality TV. With the release of his brilliant new film ‘R100,’ I hope to expose this legendary comic genius to a new, wide audience.”

The deal was negotiated by Tim
League and James Emanuel Shapiro on behalf of Drafthouse Films and
Miyuki Takamatsu of Free Stone Productions on behalf of the producers.